


Creating Constellations

by UnspokenWords



Series: UnspokenWords Keithtober 2019 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Found Family, Keithtober 2019, M/M, Minor Character Death, background Adashi, background romellura, broganes, it's about the found family, klance is there but the focus is on keith, not on klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 18:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20856533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnspokenWords/pseuds/UnspokenWords
Summary: "Keith, your mommy is somewhere out there in space. She’s not on Earth with us anymore. She had to leave for something. So she’s in space,” Keith's dad tells him when he asks. "As long as space is here, you have your mom. Okay? She’s always going to be there, up in space, thinking about you.”“But what about you? Are you going to leave like Mommy did?” Keith asks.“No, I’m not. But, someday, Daddy’s not going to be here anymore. When that happens, I’m going to become the stars. Notastar,thestars. I’m gonna be in every single one. And as long as you can see those stars, I’m gonna be with you.”Since then, Keith was always looking towards the sky, looking at the stars and at space. His family is up there. But Keith couldn't have known about the family he would find on the way there. He never could have known about the family he made among the stars.





	Creating Constellations

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I wrote this for Keithtober 2019, Day 1: Stars and Space.

“Do I have a mommy?” Keith asks his dad. Everyone in his books and on TV has a mom. But Keith, Keith hasn’t even seen his mom.

His dad looks at him, eyebrows raised, and holds out his hand to Keith.

“Keith, come with me.”

Keith grabs his hand. They walk outside together. 

There they stop and stand, outside of their shack, under the stars and the sky. The stars are everywhere, shining.

Keith looks up at his dad, and his dad looks down at him.

“Do you see the sky?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, do you remember what’s beyond the sky?”

“Space?”

“Space! Keith, your mommy is somewhere out there in space. She’s not on Earth with us anymore. She had to leave for something. So she’s in space.”

He lets go of Keith’s hand and squats down to face him.

“As long as space is here, you have your mom. Okay? She’s always going to be there, up in space, thinking about you.”

Keith’s mom was up in _ space _ thinking about him? His eyes widen.

“Okay!”

He looks his dad in the eyes.

“But what about you?”

His dad’s eyebrows furrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to leave like Mommy did?”

There’s a pause. A silence. His dad doesn’t answer right away.

“No, I’m not. But, someday, Daddy’s not going to be here anymore. When that happens, I’m going to become the stars. Not _ a _ star, _ the _ stars. I’m gonna be in every single one. And as long as you can see those stars, I’m gonna be with you.”

His dad was going to be the stars?! That sounds _amazing_.

“When will that happen?”

“I don’t know. Being a firefighter is dangerous.”

* * *

Keith’s dad dies when he is seven years old. He ran into a fire trying to save someone. It was his job.

The firefighter who told him said he was sorry. Said that it happens, but that his dad was one of the best people he ever knew.

Keith didn’t know what to do.

His dad said he was going to leave him someday. Keith just didn’t think it was going to happen so soon.

He picks flowers out of the sidewalk, off the side of the street, on the way to his dad’s grave. He is the only one who is ever there to visit, at least after the funeral.

The other firefighters were there at the funeral. They said sorry to Keith.

Sorry doesn’t bring him back.

Keith is put into foster care, forced to go to school. His hosts don’t seem to like him. People tell him to call them his family. They aren’t his family though.

Keith still tries to visit his dad’s grave when he can. He misses him. He misses his family.

Some days, Keith skips school. He tells his hosts he is going to school, and then he doesn’t. He goes to the grave, picking flowers on the way, and just lays with his dad. Lays on the ground with his dad.

It’s a cloudy day. Keith is looking up at the sky. At space. There are no stars. Keith knows that it’s daytime, so of course there aren’t any stars.

But, the stars aren’t in the sky. His dad isn’t in the sky. He's not watching Keith _at all_.

“Dad, you said you would be in the stars, but you’re not. You’re in the ground. Why did you lie to me?”

Keith curls up in a ball. He cries. He lets his tears fall into his dad’s grave.

He only leaves once school is over.

Then, he goes back to the house he lives in.

* * *

Keith meets Shiro when he’s twelve. Shiro comes to school on a day he doesn’t skip. Keith plays the simulator. He knows he’s good. He did the best out of everyone.

But the teacher says he shouldn’t go to the Garrison.

Keith steals the car Shiro arrived in.

Keith wants to go to space. He knows his dad was probably lying about his mom being out there, but he wants to know. He _ needs _ to know. He needs to go out there and fight and see if his mom is there.

He’s lucky when Shiro vouches for him to be there.

* * *

Keith gets kicked out of the Garrison anyway. He only punched James because he was talking shit about his parents.

James didn’t even get in trouble.

Bullshit.

Keith goes back to the shack he used to live in. It’s still there.

It’s still unlocked.

All of their old stuff is still there.

Keith looks up at the stars, at space.

Maybe they are here after all. Maybe they were watching him. Maybe they made sure their old house would always be there.

He doesn’t know how.

But Keith feels happy. He feels something at least.

He’s finally back home.

* * *

Shiro is dead too.

Pilot error.

Keith wants to go to space even more now.

Maybe he’s not dead, maybe Shiro is just missing.

Maybe Shiro is like his mom.

Shiro _ did _ raise him. Shiro was like... the brother he never had.

Shiro was his brother.

And his brother was supposed to be dead.

There’s no way Shiro is dead_ now_, he was only supposed to die from that arm disease. Not from space.

Keith misses his brother.

_ Adam_. What happened to Adam? Is he okay?

Adam told Shiro not to go.

Keith wishes he could visit Adam, but... he can’t. The Garrison wouldn’t let him in anyway. He’s pretty sure that he’s banned from even getting near it. If he had a phone, he would send Adam a message. But he doesn’t.

So he can’t.

Keith turns to space. To the stars.

Maybe he can find a way to find Shiro.

He’s out there, Keith knows it.

He just needs to find him.

* * *

Keith knows a ship is supposed to land tonight. Land tonight on Earth.

He’s seen signs.

He’s been studying.

He needs to see what the ship is.

Maybe it’s the aliens he’s been studying, the signals he’s been sensing, the radio waves he’s been hearing.

Or... maybe it’s his mom. Maybe his mom is coming back for him.

He doesn’t have a scrap of evidence it would be his mom, but he can hope.

But, he needs to get there before anyone else, he needs to be covered as well, so no one will know it’s him if people do get there.

And... it’s near the Garrison. So he has to hide his face anyway. So he doesn’t get spotted and kicked out.

Maybe it’s Shiro. Maybe it’s his brother. 

But Keith doesn’t have time to think about it, he has to go, so he wraps a bandana around his face, gets on his bike, and races off.

He gets there too late. The Garrison is already there. They’re quarantining it. Keith can hear Shiro talking about something. Shiro is in there. He’s _ alive_. And no one is listening to what he’s saying.

Keith can’t take it. He busts in and rescues Shiro. Maybe he should take Shiro to Adam. Adam would know what to do.

But some guy comes in and tries to take Shiro. He says his name is Lance, that they studied at the Garrison together.

Keith thinks he would’ve remembered such a cute guy, but he doesn’t.

But it doesn’t matter because Lance is trying to take Shiro, and Keith can’t let him, and there are too many people going after them, so Keith can’t even try to contact Adam or take Shiro to him.

So he has to take Shiro and Lance and Lance’s... “friends” with him to his shack.

There, they find that Keith’s obsession with the stars and space might have come in handy. That he wasn’t wrong about the waves and the feelings he was sensing. That he wasn’t wrong about something being here.

They find... a blue metal lion.

And they get in and it takes them into space.

Lance isn’t the best pilot, but if Keith was being honest? He was actually pretty good.

* * *

It’s been over a year since they found Voltron. It’s been over a year since they’ve been in space. But Keith, he still hasn’t tired of the stars, of space. Every time he looks at a star, he thinks of his dad. Maybe that’s what he meant when he said that he was going to be in the stars.

Keith hasn’t found his mom yet, but he hopes he will.

He hopes he will.

* * *

Shiro goes missing again. And Keith is supposed to pilot the Black Lion.

He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to. That ship belongs to Shiro, to his brother. Not to him. He can’t pilot it. He’s not a leader.

But Lance, Lance tells him he is. Lance tells him he can be a leader. Lance tells him he’s not a replacement for Shiro. Lance lets him know that he’s not alone.

Keith doesn’t know what the weird feeling in his chest is, but Lance telling him that opens his eyes.

Pidge is there for him, Allura is there for him, Coran, Hunk, and Lance. They’re all here for him. To support him.

Keith feels different on this ship than he did when he was in foster care. He feels... cared about. Shiro _ raised _him. Shiro was like his brother. His real brother.

But everyone else in Voltron, on the ship? He never saw it before, but they were like... a tight-knit group. They were all friends, close friends. 

Almost like a family.

Families, what are they?

People put together, connected by platonic feelings, or romantic feelings. But there’s something beyond that, something beyond that.

Maybe it is just a bond of trust, maybe it is more, but Keith starts to realize that their little group is almost a family.

* * *

So, his dad was right that his mother was alive and in space. What he neglected to mention was that she is an alien.

That means his dad—

Keith isn’t going to think about his mom and dad’s “interpersonal” relationship. Nope.

But his mom, her name is Krolia. And she’s with him. Which is nice.

She’s alive. That’s nice too.

Keith can see where he got a lot of his personality from. And features. It’s mostly the hair and the eyes though.

It’s night when he thinks that maybe, he has all of his family right here, at this moment, while he’s on the space whale.

He has his space wolf, his mom, his dad in the stars.

But it’s missing something. He knows something is missing. But he doesn’t know what. 

He knows Shiro is missing, his brother is missing from this moment, but there’s something else too. 

* * *

When he gets back to the ship, two years later, he realizes what was missing. Lance. And the rest of Voltron. He was missing Pidge and Hunk and Allura and Coran. They’re his family too.

They’re Keith’s family too.

And Lance, he looks exactly the same as when he last saw him, and it’s been two years of silent contemplating, reliving memories, and by now, Keith has realized what that weird feeling in this chest was. Keith is in love.

Lance is his love. That’s the type of family he wants with him. He wants to be a family like how his mom and dad were a family.

He wants Lance.

* * *

The war is finally over. Everyone is on Earth again.

Everyone is alive.

Most of his family is alive.

His father is the only one who isn’t.

But, he still has all of his family right here.

Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, Adam, Allura, Coran, Krolia, and Romelle all came over to his house to visit. It’s their weekly Board Game Night. Everyone sits outside by the fire, marshmallows on sticks, graham crackers and chocolate in their other hands.

Keith is snuggled up next to Lance’s side. Lance likes his marshmallows burnt. Keith thinks he’s crazy, but it’s cute.

Kosmo lays across their lap. Keith is grateful that Kosmo is smart enough not to get too close to the fire, otherwise, he would have to keep him inside. But that wouldn’t have worked. Kosmo would’ve just teleported to the backyard.

Keith has all of his family right here.

He has Kosmo, his mom, his dad in the stars. He has Shiro and Adam. He has Allura and Romelle. He has Pidge, he has Hunk, he has Coran.

He has Lance, his husband, right here.

Keith has all of his family right here.

And Keith thinks that he will always have his family, no matter what happens.

No matter what pulls them apart, he’ll always have this family.

In space.

In the stars.

In his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this fic for Keithtober! This is the first Keithtober I'm doing, and I really did write this in less than 24 hours, so I'm sorry about any typos! And I hope I can do more of Keithtober!
> 
> Please comment your thoughts below, or find me at any of these links!
> 
> Twitter: [@_keithtrash_](https://twitter.com/_keithtrash_)  
Tumblr: [Tumblr](https://unspoken-words-ao3.tumblr.com/)


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